What's a nice girl like me doing in a blog like this...

So here's the deal. I'm thirtyblahness, I'm single and I have been since,... Well, create your pithy metaphor for a long time and insert it here. (also not a bad place for an "insert something here" joke, given my dry spell. I'll let you do that too. I'll wait...)

Why have I been single, single, single? I suppose it depends on who you ask. My friends would say I've got issues, and probably that I'm too picky. One has suggested that I'm just not trying hard enough. Family would say things very supportively, but they probably think I have given up. Many people who have run up against my more difficult personality traits would call me, in the classic vernacular, a beeee-otch! I say it's three things:

-I'm one hell of a handful and most men aren't up for it.
-I have so very little time (work, school, family, etc.) and won't spend it trolling for love
-I don't need someone else. I would like someone else, but I don't need someone else. It makes a difference. Trust me.

I'm sure we'll dwell on my damage many more times in the future, so let me move on.

My parents (I love them, by the way -- you'll hear more about them for sure) had a friend get married after years of being single, and he met his sweety on E-Harmony. So they came back from the wedding really excited that I could use that system too! And because I have no tact I totally shot down the idea. Why? Because frankly I'd just feel stupid putting that kind of time and energy (and money -- those sites are way spendy!) on "finding love." How does one do that and not scream "I'm lonely! I'm desperate! Somebody love me!" My goals til now have been to be A-OK as a solo act. But I am not opposed to a relationship; I just want it to find me. So how to try to appease my parents without feeling like an idiot?

By killing 2 birds with 1 stone!

I'd been toying with the idea of starting a blog for a while (just call me a frustrated William Goldman or Joshilyn Jackson) and here, at last, was a topic worthy of such an endeavor. I'm going to try my hand at this online love thing and you're going to go along for the ride. I hope that it will be worthy of my time writing and your time reading, and I'll make the following promises regarding the adventure:

1. I'll take this online matchmaking seriously, and be open to any good thing that comes from it!
2. I'll keep the names of absolutely everybody I mention private, and use nicknames to protect the innocent (just in case I write about someone innocent, but I doubt it) and the rest of my family, friends and friends-to-be.
3. If this starts to suck, or if it gets to be too, too painful, I'll stop. I promise I'll stop.
4. Anything I decide to add to the blog that isn't on topic I'll place in a side-spot, so those who don't need to know my favorite 5 books or what I last had to drink can be not bothered. (I'd be not bothered if I were you!)

Good luck to you all, and to me. I'm pretty sure this is the first sign of the apocolypse, so watch for frogs falling from the sky people!